A bone-anchored hearing device (or “BAHD”) is an auditory prosthetic device based on bone conduction having a portion or portions thereof which are surgically implanted. A BAHD uses the bones of the skull as pathways for sound to travel to a patient's inner ear. For people with conductive hearing loss, a BAHD bypasses the external auditory canal and middle ear, and stimulates the still-functioning cochlea via an implanted metal post. For patients with unilateral hearing loss, a BAHD uses the skull to conduct the sound from the deaf side to the side with the functioning cochlea. In most BAHA systems, a titanium post or plate is surgically embedded into the skull with a small abutment extending through and exposed outside the patient's skin. A BAHD sound processor attaches to the abutment and transmits sound vibrations through the external abutment to the implant. The implant vibrates the skull and inner ear, which stimulates the nerve fibers of the inner ear, allowing hearing. A BAHD device can also be connected to an FM system or iPod by means of attaching a miniaturized FM receiver or Bluetooth connection thereto.
BAHD devices manufactured by COCHLEAR™ of Sydney, Australia, and OPTICON™ of Smoerum, Sweden. SOPHONO™ of Boulder, Colo. manufactures a an ALPHA 1 magnetic hearing aid device, which attaches by magnetic means behind a patient's ear to the patient's skull by coupling to a magnetic or magnetized bone plate (or “magnetic implant”) implanted in the patient's skull beneath the skin.
Surgical procedures for implanting such posts or plates are relatively straightforward, and are well known to those skilled in the art. See, for example, “Alpha I (S) & Alpha I (M) Physician Manual—REV A S0300-00” published by Sophono, Inc. of Boulder, Colo., the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Hearing aid devices and systems offered by different manufacturers are often incompatible with one another such that external hearing aids provided by one manufacturer cannot be used in conjunction with bone screws or magnetic implants provided by another manufacturer. This results in patients and health care providers being unable to mix or combine, by way of example, hearing aids provided by one manufacturer with bone screws or magnetic implants provided by another manufacturer.
What is needed is the ability of patients and health care providers to employ hearing aid system components or devices provided by one manufacturer with those of another manufacturer.